TheEagle of Zeus (Ancient Greek:ἀετός Διός,romanized: Aetos Dios) was one of the chief attributes and personifications ofZeus, the head of theOlympian pantheon.
Eagles were considered the most prominent of birds inclassical antiquity. Several legends attested to their unique qualities, such asAristotle's claim that the sea eagle only raised the young who could look at the sun directly without their eyes watering, orPliny the Elder's claim that they were immune to being struck by lightning, while theGeoponica claimed that they protected from hail.[1] They were considered endowed with oracular properties, and a divine bird, as messenger ofZeus and herald of victory.[1] In fact, Zeus himself is said to have transformed himself into an eagle on occasion.[1]
From these divine associations, the eagle came to be used as an emblem of several rulers, from theAchaemenids toAlexander the Great and theDiadochi, and finally of theRoman emperors.[1] Zeus being equated with Jupiter, the eagle holding Jupiter's lightning became the chief symbol (aquila) of theRoman legions.[2] The eagle was placed amongst the stars as theconstellation Aquila alongsideLyra.[3]
In1804,Napoleon Bonaparte would recover theaquila as a symbol ofhis house and emblem of theGrande Armée.[4][5]
TheHouse of Bernadotte also has the Eagle as its emblem.[6]
TheGreat Seal of the United States and several federal agencies (CIA,NSA, etc.) also depict theAetos Dios but as abald eagle.
There are several schools of thought regarding the origin of this eagle, coming from different Greek legends.
In one version,Aëtos was a childhood friend of Zeus who kept him company while the god was hiding inCrete from his father. After Zeus became king,Hera turned Aëtos into an eagle out of fear that Zeus was in love with him. Zeus made the eagle his most prominent and sacred symbol. In some versions, Aëtos is supplanted withGanymede, the Trojan prince whom Zeus abducted in the form of an eagle.[7]
According toAntoninus Liberalis,Periphas was a legendaryking of Attica who was a just king, and a dutiful priest ofApollo. Zeus, however, became indignant because Periphas was revered and honoured as if he were Zeus himself, so Zeus wanted to destroy Periphas and his entire household. But Apollo interceded, and instead Zeus transformed Periphas into an eagle, making him king of all birds and guard of his sacred sceptre.[8]
In other accounts the eagle was in fact an ancient creation of the goddessGaia. He appeared before Zeus at the start of theTitanomachy. Zeus took this to mean a good omen of victory, leading to him using the emblem of a golden eagle on his war standard:
...For so happy an omen, especially since victory did ensue, he made a golden eagle for his war standards and consecrated it to the might of his protection, whereby also among the Romans, standards of this kind are carried. — a translated excerpt fromFulgentius' "Mythologies"(Mythologiarum Libri III)
According to others[who?] Zeus adopted the eagle when it first appeared to him before the Titan War as a sign of good omen. The eagle was later sent by Zeus to fetch the handsome youth Ganymedes to heaven to become the cupbearer of the gods.[citation needed]